Young Ryan Sinnamon hopes to win new Rangers deal

The Rangers youngster looks forward to the Scotland U19 clash with Austria. Picture: SNS

Scotland under-19s will qualify for the European Championships for the first time in nine years if they beat Croatia in Austria this afternoon. A draw may even send them through too depending on the permutations of the result in the group’s other game between Italy and the hosts.

Right back Sinnamon has been named as a sub a few times now by new Rangers manager Stuart McCall, but he’s one of several players out of contract at the end of the season at Ibrox.

And he’s hoping qualification to the finals, after already beating Austria and drawing with the Italians, would help persuade the Championship club to weigh him in with a new deal.

Sinnamon said: “It’s been a great first two games for us and now we know what we have to do – go out and get three points against Croatia.

“It would be amazing to get to the finals. Coming in, I think a lot of people wrote us off as underdogs. Ricky Sbragia told us that on the Uefa website Austria mentioned that they’d said they had tough games against Croatia and Italy and didn’t even mention having to play us.

“I don’t know if it’s helped us to come in as underdogs, but it’s been nine years since we’ve qualified so it would be a great achievement to qualify.

“At Rangers, I’m out of contract in the summer. It’s a big period. I’d like to stay at Rangers and the way it’s going it’s definitely looking a bit more positive for me.

“There are a lot of boys who are out of contract so I’d like to think I can show that I can do a job and save them a bit of money. If the manager has come in and shown he likes me then it would help if he stayed.”

The 18-year-old has been impressed with McCall’s focus on using some of Rangers’ younger players. He said: “At the start of the season I was just in the under-20s, but since Stuart McCall’s come in I’ve felt far more involved and been training with the first team every day.

“I’ve been on the bench for the last couple of games so it’s looking a bit more positive for me. He’s definitely spending more time on tactics and the players seem to be getting a buzz off him. You could see that in the performance against Hibs. He’s been good with me on the training ground.

“Hopefully, I can impress him and being away with Scotland helps me kick on. He seems to have faith in younger players and it’s good that the boys who have come in have made an impact, because it shows we can produce.

“They’ve given the team a lift and the supporters have bought into it.”

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